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German Far-Right Leader Under Investigation

The figurehead of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party Alexander Gauland is being investigated for tax evasion, prosecutors said Thursday, after his parliamentary immunity was lifted by MPs.

BERLIN (AFP) — The figurehead of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party Alexander Gauland is being investigated for tax evasion, prosecutors said Thursday, after his parliamentary immunity was lifted by MPs.

Gauland, 78, is one of the most prominent figures in the AfD party, which rails against immigration, Islam and environmentalism.

On Thursday, German parliamentarians voted to remove his legal immunity to facilitate the probe, first reported by German media last March.

Frankfurt prosecutors said they would search Gauland's properties on Thursday as part of the investigation.

A spokesperson for AfD told Agence France-Presse that the investigations concerned "old proceedings from the year before last," and that the party would give a fuller statement later Thursday.

The case is not believed to be related to recent investigations of other AfD politicians over illegal party funding.

The party was fined more than 400,000 euros ($450,000) last April, for taking illegal campaign contributions during regional elections.

The blow prompted the party's treasurer to write to members in December that it is in "serious financial distress."

Founded seven years ago, the AfD is Germany's largest opposition party in terms of parliamentary seats.

In recent years it has celebrated unprecedented electoral successes, entering the national parliament for the first time in 2017, but has caused outrage with its challenge to Germany's culture of remembrance for Nazi crimes.

In 2018, Gauland said that the 12-year dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, which oversaw the systematic murder of 6 million Jews, was a "speck of bird shit in more than 1,000 years of successful German history."

The AfD chairman for two years until he gave up the post last year, Gauland is still the party's parliamentary leader in the Bundestag.

© Agence France-Presse

Categories / International, Politics

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